Day 1 at Leadership Institute

The sessions this morning have been thought-provoking.  I have attended three sessions so far.  The first session dealt with the role of technology in education and society.  One of the "take-aways" is that schools must make sure that students have the skills to research the incredible amounts of information that is available on the web.  That information is only going to increase over the upcoming years.  Currently, only 10% of the known knowledge is in electronic form and available on the internet.  Imagine the amount of information that will become available as the internet expands and includes more of the known information.   I foresee that schools will have to start teaching students how to become better researchers and analyzers of information gleaned from the web.  The presenter also was thoughtful enough to force us to take a step back and reflect about the value of technology in our life.  For example, looking at Yelp to find a place to eat in the middle of a neighborhood in a big city when you have hundreds of actual people you can ask is kind of ridiculous.  I think that the philosophy at PT is sound; technology is a means to an end. In other words, technology can lead to better instructions and enhanced learning opportunities (and activities) for our students

Speaking of learning activities, one of the presenters this morning discussed some cutting edge brain research.  The presenter was thoughtful, articulate and very bright.  I understood most of the research behind his conclusions, and his recommendation to those of us in the audience was powerful.  Brain research supports two powerful teaching strategies that need to be used more in all schools across the United States.  First, the brain learns best by trial and error.  By making mistakes (and learning from them) the brain actually creates neural pathways that lead to beeper learning.  The presenter also stressed the importance of active learning.  Your brain learns the best when it is physically doing a task, not just receiving information from a lecture or a video.  I am proud that PT is moving almost exclusively to the active learning environment.  Finally, I learned that the brain needs time to "consolidate" information after it is learned.  What does this look like in the classroom?  Many times a students that is daydreaming is actually consolidating information that they have just learned.  This process is a required part of deep learning.  Now, sometimes daydreaming is just that, daydreaming.  But I think back to something my grandmother used to say.  When she saw someone daydreaming she would say, "That is a sign of intelligence"; although it may not be a sign of intelligence, it may be a sign that deep learning is taking place.

So far, this conference has been thought-provoking and I look forward to sharing more with you tomorrow!